Anyone keep track of their Ring Multiball top score?

I had a new GC score just now, and played what felt like an epic Ring Multiball, to the tune of 52+ million from that alone. I don't believe with gollum or 2x Scoring going either. Scoring seems to start around 750k-1 million per jackpot and tops at 2 million, by my math I had something like 30 ring shot jackpots, LOL. I could seemingly not miss a ring shot for about 5 minutes straight. Probably not that great compared to others, but felt epic to me.

I was struggling to hit the ring during DTR earlier but did manage that to that game too. What a great machine this is...

For those who have the Gandalf staff mod, I’m curious as to whether you wire it to a permanent bulb or a flasher? Obviously a matter of preference, but curious about how others feel.

Also, lazy question, but can I set the Isengard popper to a lower level in the menu? The balls smash the shit out of my side panel, so I’ve put in some ugly fix for now. If I can’t change the settings, I’ll buy some of the putty over at pinbits. It’s black and will blend right in.

I tied mine to "mode start." Felt that was the most appropriate.

In the club...Picked up mine this past weekend.

What have people used to keep the staff in Gandalf’s hand?

You can use a drop of hot glue or crazy glue if it won't stay.

Just picked up this huo LOTR, Now it’s time to start this journey

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Who sells the apron decals with the Middle Earth maps on them?

RussM

It snaps right in. I was afraid to use some muscle at first, too, but I gathered the courage and it fits perfectly. Just avoid getting the snaked wiring on staff caught.

Congrats! A beautiful machine you will truly enjoy! Plus it looks like you got the hard to find but must have Palentir mod. Nice.

Does this look normal? The sling rubber on my LOTR sticks out much more than my other games as shown here with AFM where the rubber is recessed.

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One more...

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probably because of the star posts, oops was looking at the pictures posted above yours, EDIT: don't believe star posts are factory

I believe the posts are supposed to be 550-5059-01 clear posts

Make sure the posts are reasonably tight at the underside of the playfield.

Ordered the habitrail mod. Thanks for the advice!

I think the ones I have are the right ones?

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Yes. They appear to be correct. Just make sure they are tight under the playfield.

Looks the same as my lotr. Half the pins in my lineup are like your lotr and half are like your AFM. Just the way the sling plastics were done on different pins it seems.

Just got a pinsound and installed it. Any recommendations for sound files beyond the one on the Pinsound forums? Also, as this is my first Pinsound, do I have to keep the USB permanently inserted in the board, or does it download the audio onto ram somewhere on the board? I find the instructions to be a bit lacking, though it’s quite possible I am missing them being somewhere.

Thanks all!

Edit - I see TheWool made one with positive reviews. Any others?

I am working on a mix but it is not quite ready for prime time and I would call it more unconventional.

Awesome, I will be tracking!

Maybe wrong size rubber?

Could be. I'm going to replace all rubbers, change all bulbs to LED, and a few other things once I get some time.

Another question... Seems the audio levels are all messed up in this game. The soundtrack is much lower than the call outs. I think the MB modes also increase in volume too.

Is this a known issue with this game, or something specific to my machine?

there is a setting to stop the audio from changing levels.

Oh. Where would I find that? And does it sound good using this option?

I have orange star posts that I purchased from Pinball Life in my slings and clear protectors under the plastics. No concerns.

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Also tracking this...

Got the Pinsound set up! For some reason, I can’t get other sound files to work, but the one I loaded from Pinsound works great and is a HUGE improvement! Must have for any lotr owner, given sound is the one not-minor issue with this pin imo.

Also got the Mt. Doom mod...love it!

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My memory is the whitestar setup currently doesn't allow to change between mixes. Just load your favorite

I actually tried the other one first. I’ll PM TheWool to see if he’s had others say the same.

That looks sweeeet with Sauron there! I was hoping someone would post a pic with Mt.Doom and Sauron.

Did you have any trouble accessing the machine screws to get the wireform off the backboard? Looks like it might be tough to get a nut driver in there.

Yes, since you are using the pinsound board, volumes on tracks can fluctuate from very loud to very soft. The new version of pinsound studio being released soon is supposed to help manage that. For now, I am using gain.txt files in certain folders. The loud files get a lower setting between 1 & 4. The original sound files from the game are mono and low quality and don't need a gain.txt file in their folder.
Sound track files that the Wool and the OST (Original Sound Track) are using are stereo and higher quality, think remastered music. I have been working with the original files and basically remastering some of them. However, since LOTR has about 1300 individual tracks this is no small undertaking until the new version of pinsound studio comes out. We shall see, I still may remaster all the originals that I put into my mix.

Added over 6 years ago: 1300 items including folders, my mistake

Great, thanks for the info. Glad I’m not crazy. Using headphones helps a bit, it never gets too soft that way.

If you do end up releasing something to help alleviate the issue, please let us know!

BTW, my issue with Wool’s is that Pinsound is simply not recognizing it on my USB, even when there are no other soundtracks on the USB. Not sure why, I’ve sent him a PM.

I would suggest doing a thread search for pinsound because I remember reading several threads with similar issues and the fixes to get through it.

I will let you fellow LOTRers know when I post my mix.
Did you try just putting The Wool zip file on the USB and let the pinsound board process the zip file? I have had the most success with that when updating my personal mix.

Under Feature Adjustments, setting #26, set to NO to disable the auto adjusting of volume during particular game situations.

SWEET, thanks for that!

Just to confirm, I assume by “NO,” you mean “0,” correct? It’s a 0-10 scale.

Correct. Zero would be off. I have mine set on 1 and it is not annoying like the factory setting was when I got the game NIB.

Getting quicker... Now if I could only get better at finishing FOTR and ROTK MBs!

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Hey everyone. My initial deal fell through so I am very much in the market for a LOTR table. If anyone has any leads or know anyone, I’d highly appreciate the tip! PM me please.

I’m located in WI but willing to pay shipping.

Thanks!

Played a 70 minute game last night, and completed everything but Two Towers and RoTK multiball. Had 6 gifts, but obviously that jumps to 7 with the multiball completions. I need to figure out better methods for the two latter multiball.

TTT is probably the easiest to beat of the three. I find FOTR hard because you're required to hit those two shots constantly.

I played one game today, had everything completed except FOTR and ROTK. I had a good run at them, and was a few shots away from finishing them. But after TABA, I messaged up by starting a mode at random. I should have started WOTE and loaded up ROTK.

Valinor is definitely an adventure to get to!

TTT doesn’t constantly replenish the balls for me like FoTR. Maybe I’m missing something. I need to re-read the rules.

Forgot to answer this! It was a bit tight, but my ratchet ser has a thing extender that makes it easy. Whole install took maybe ten minutes.

Lighting the Palantir and then collecting it via the Mystery award will usually (but not always) add-a-ball in the three movie multiballs. (To light Palantir, shoot the left orbit to reach the Barad-dur tower on the upper right corner of the playfield, and to collect Palantir, simply hit the white target below the globe next to the right VUK, a/k/a Gollum's Cave.)

If the game is adding balls to the multi-ball for what seems to be an extended amount of time then that is often because of a trough opto board problem.

There is usually about 10 seconds of ball save for the multi-balls and then after that only one or two ways to add a ball one time.

Well, that is certainly interesting. It happens to me, but only during Fellowship. What’s the fix?

Edit - Looks like replacements can be had for $30. I will tinker with them then replace if need be.

Thanks!

You could try re-flowing the solder points on the opto boards.